Can East Timor Survive Independence?

Abstract

After 274 years of Portuguese colonisation, with short interregnums by the Japanese, and 24 years of Indonesia occupancy, the East Timorese have exercised their right for self-determination through popular consultation on 30 August 1999. With a voter turnout of 98 per cent, around 78.5 per cent of people registered to vote rejected the integration into The Republic of Indonesia. As a consequence of the ballot the United Nations (UN) through Security Council Resolution 1272, has established a Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). UNTAET has the power ‘to exercise all legislative and executive authority including the administration of justice’. To avoid the possibility of imposing itself on the East Timorese UNTAET has formed a fifteen-member National Consultative Committee (NCC), comprised of four UNTAET members, ten members from the Timorese National Resistance Council (CNRT), Church representatives, and one pro-Jakarta representative. UNTAET now acts as de facto transitional government until the final legitimate government is formed through a national election. The election is planned for early 2001. Over this same period, the East Timorese will need to form the foundation of a democratic and self-sufficient country, free from any kind of imperialistic dependency. To do this, the East Timorese must generate their sense of nationalism. They will need to build economic political infrastructure to reduce social discrepancies, regional disparities and formulate a policy of natural resource utility and development. This account of the transition period is formed on three issues: first, existing social circumstances in East Timor; second, the emerging national identity; and, third the quality and direction of the interaction between the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and the Timorese National Resistance Council (CNRT).